UNM Psychedelic Research

Psychedelic research at the University of New Mexico has one of the longest lineages in the modern era, beginning with Rick Strassman's studies of DMT and psilocybin between 1990 and 1995, the first human psychedelic research in the United States after the field was halted in the early 1970s. Today the work is based at UNM Health Sciences, where investigators including Snehal Bhatt run trials of psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine for depression, PTSD, alcohol use disorder and methamphetamine dependence. UNM researchers contributed to the influential 2022 trial reporting that psilocybin-assisted therapy helped people with alcohol use disorder, and the group is involved in multi-site studies of ketamine for methamphetamine dependence and of novel psilocybin-related compounds for postpartum depression.